LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1913.
CONTENTS.—No. 203.
RICHARD SIMPSON'S 'THE LADY
FALKLAND: HER LIFE.'
I HAVE recently picked up for sixpence the Rev. Dr. Augustus Jessopp' s copy of the above work (London, Catholic Publishing and Bookselling Company, Limited, Charles Dol- man, Manager, 1861). At the beginning of the Appendix (at p. 125) Simpson remarks that " the printing of the Life was com- menced under another Editor." Some light is thrown on this statement by a MS. note by Dr. Jessopp, which runs as follows :
" The MS. notes in this volume are by my dear nd lamented friend Kichard Simpson, who made them while on a visit to me at Norwich shortly before his death.
" The history of this volume is interesting. Simpson had a MS. of it (made by his own hand) lying by for some years, when a lady, whose name I forget, in very narrow circumstances, applied to him for assistance of any kind. ' I had not any money to give her,' lie said. ' So I gave her the MS., and told her to try Dolman with it. I think she got 10J.' (A. Jessopp.) " Was this lady the other editor to whom Simpson refers ? Who was she ?
One of the MS. notes by Simpson states
that Lady Falkland
" was married in the summer of 1602. Chamber- lain to Carleton, Oct. 2, 1602, p. 149, describes the crowded commencement at Oxford, where cutpurses disburdened Sir R. Lea of two jewels of 200 marks, which he and his brother Sir Harry meant to have bestowed on the bride, Mr. Tan- field's daughter."
As she was married at fifteen, that would put the date of her birth at 1587.
The Life, which was probably by her eldest daughter, Dame dementia Cary, O.S.B., states (at p. 9) that Lady Falkland " writ many things for her private recreation, on several subjects and occasions, all in verse (out of which she scarce ever writ anything that was not translations) : one of them was after stolen out of that sister-in-law's (her friend's) chamber, and printed, but by her own procurement Avas called in."
On this a MS. note by Simpson runs :
" This work is perhaps ' The Tragedy of Mariam, the faire queene of Jewry. Written by that Irarned, vertuous and truly noble lady E. C. (Lond. Creede for T. Hawkins, 1613).' Dedicated to ' Dianaes Earthlie Deputesse and my worthy sister Mistris Elizabeth Carye.' See the ded. verses in Notes and Queries, 3 Ser. viii. 203.
" Oldys supposes this to have been our Lady Gary's work ; Brydges thinks it more probably belongs to Eliz., wife of Sir Geo. Cary, 2nd Lord Hunsdon, daughter of Sir J. Spencer of Althorpe ('Censura Literaria,' i. 153).
" However, she was Lady Hunsdon in 1613. The dedication by a sister to the author herself is quite in accordance with the account [in the Life.]
" The second edition of ' England's Helicon,' 1614, was dedicated by the publisher to ' the truly virtuous and honourable lady, the lady Elizabeth Carye,' whose ' happy muse ' he com- pliments (first edition, 1600).
" So also was John Davies's (of Hereford) 'The Muses Sacrifice ; or divine meditations,' London, G. Norton, 1612, ' To the most noble and no less deservedly renowned Ladies, as well darlings as patronesses of the Muses, Lucy, Countess of Bedford, Mary, Countess Dowager of Pembroke, and Elizabeth, Lady Gary, wife of Sir Henry Cary, glories of women.' Here are Davies's verses : Cary, of whom Minerva stands in fear
Lest she from her should get Art's regency, Of Art so moves the great all-moving sphere
That every orb of science moves thereby. Thou mak'st Melpomen provid, and rny heart great
Of such a pupil, who in buskin fine With feet of state dost make thy Muse to meet
The scenes of Syracuse and Palestine. Art, language, yea abstruse and holy tongues
Thy wit and grace acquired thy faine to raise, And still to fill thine own and others' songs,
Thine with thy parts, and others with thy praise. Such nervy limbs of art and strains of wit
Times past ne'er knew the weaker sex to have, And times to come will hardly credit it,
If thus thou give thy works both birth and grave.
